Bizarre Ways To Get Disqualified From Sports

It’s recently come to light that an ultra-marathon runner hitched a lift for some of her race. Eyebrows were raised when she appeared to have run a 1 minute 40 second mile but it was later discovered she travelled 2.5 miles of the race in a car. But this isn’t the only strange story of an odd sporting disqualification.

Way back in 1904, Frederick Lorz tried the same tactic during the men’s marathon in the Olympics. He completed 11 miles of the race in a car before jumping out and running over the finish line. Extreme heat, dusty conditions and a lack of regular water stops meant only 14 of the 32 runners completed the race that day with Lorz faring the best thanks to his ride.

In the Winter Olympics last year five skiers were disqualified for wearing clothes that were said to be too baggy. This perceived aerodynamic advantage was enough to stop Austrian, German, Japanese and Norwegian athletes from competing. Whilst aerodynamics are often discussed in motorsports, at an elite level apparently even clothing can have a measurable impact.

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In more Olympics fun and games, in 1984 Puerto Rico’s Madeline de Jesus was injured in doing long jump which meant she wouldn’t be able to compete in the 4x400 relay later in the event. Instead, her twin stepped in and did the race in her place. They nearly got away with it but a journalist noticed a subtle difference between the two women and they were subsequently disqualified and banned from sporting events for a year.

Once again on the world stage, a Taekwondo competitor in the 2008 Olympics kicked the referee in the face. In contact sports it’s inevitable that a referee will get tangled up in the action but this reportedly wasn’t an accident. Upset with the scoring, the athlete lashed out at the referee and won himself a lifetime ban from Taekwondo events.

Let’s not forget the infamous Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield 1997 heavyweight title fight, where Tyson took a bite out of Holyfield’s ear. This was definitely a bizarre incident that led to Tyson losing his boxing license for around two years and of course, disqualification from the fight.